Haring had assumed that his South Philadelphia mural would disappear, and it hasn’t. For this 88½-foot mural, it was the opposite: “I made this painting to amuse the sick children in this hospital, now and in the future,” he wrote in his diary – but by 2011 it had deteriorated badly, and the hospital was going to demolish it as part of an expansion. Roslyn Sulcas recounts how the piece, called Tower, was rescued.
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Winner Of The 2017 Carbuncle Cup Is –
- the one we here thought was the least bad of the finalists. (We agree with the vast majority – 78% – of Building Design readers, who chose a different candidate.) But the judges’ votes for the UK’s worst building of the year went to a development near London’s Victoria Station; one judge describes it as “two large blocks sliced and diced to create to create a series of angular volumes drunkenly leaning on each other … [with] a headache-inducing moiré pattern when viewed from the side.”
South Florida Museums Hunker Down Ahead Of Hurricane Irma
“The Perez Art Museum Miami, The Wolfsonian—FIU, ICA Miami, Dimensions Variable, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, and Faena Art all announced they would be closed on Wednesday and remain shut through the weekend.” Fortunately, several of these museums were specifically built to withstand extreme weather.
Kate Millett, Author Of ‘Sexual Politics’, Dead At 82
“Dr. Millett was a contemporary of Gloria Steinem’s – the Ms. Magazine co-founder was six months her senior – and along with Steinem became a driving force behind feminism’s ‘second wave’ that transformed the movement in the 1960s and 1970s.”
Brussels’ La Monnaie Opera House Finally Reopens – With A Brand-New Opera That Brought The House Down (Figuratively)
The grand old theater shut down for renovations two summers ago; the work was supposed to take only one season, and the extra year of delays forced the company to (literally) put up a tent to perform in. Now the company has come back to its home stage with a brand-new work about which Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim writes, “It’s undeniable: Philippe Boesmans’ Pinocchio is a hit.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.07.17
Berserk in the Berkshires: Museum’s Perverse Plan Underscores Need for Government Regulations
The sad saga of the Berkshire Museum’s descent into madness — its wrongheaded, self-destructive obsession with solving its financial problems by selling off the best works in its collection — reaffirms my long-held conviction that strict laws and/or ironclad … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-09-07
Jazz on Millennium Park’s big screen – PoKempner photos
A 40-by-22½-foot LED screen is a dominating feature of the stage in the Pritzker Pavilion of Chicago’s Millennium Park, difficult to ignore though many try. … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2017-09-07
The Immigrant Experience, Told In Six Words
Junot Diaz, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Gary Shteyngart, Madeleine Albright, David Henry Hwang, and others share their (very succinct) stories.
Caravaggio: Genius, Thug, Gangster, Nightmare Tenant
Nightmare tenant? Oh, yes – he poked holes in the roof of his apartment and threw rotten vegetables at his landlady. That in addition to the murder, brawling, whoring and vandalism. In fact, writes Noah Charney, “we know far more about Caravaggio than most pre-modern artists because he was brought to trial so often.”
Neo-Nazis Are Fixating On Medieval Europe – How Should Medievalist Scholars Handle This?
“Telling the story of the Nazi love affair with the medieval past doesn’t require blaming medievalists per se. It’s not about whether our intentions are good. … Having discovered it, the question is what to do. And the first step is to understand the myriad forms that racist engagement with the Middle Ages can take.”
What Factors Keep Some World Musical Traditions Healthy As Others Wither Away?
The director and curator of the Smithsonian Folkways record label consulted with colleagues to identify five clusters of forces that affect the health and sustainability of various musical cultures. “[Then] nine international research teams carefully examined traditions ranging from Mexican mariachi to Korean samulnori; from Indian ragas to West African ewe dance-percussion; and from Aboriginal women’s songs in Central Australia to Western opera.”